vince) and Yang (in Sri Sa Ket province) were found to contain only 45 and 42

households, respectively, it was decided to sample the whole population of

households in them.

The choice of the two control villages was more difficult for they could

scarcely represent all conditions between them. After much deliberation Na

Wang, in the very dry and poor province of Chaiyaphum, was chosen because it

appeared to be more economically successful than its natural endowment would

suggest, due to the high degree of organization and motivation amongst its

residents. It was therefore suitable to assess progress of the project in

those villages where agricultural services are targeted. The other control

village, Or in Sri Sa Ket province, is a poor, isolated, and monocultural rice

cropping village from which there is extensive seasonal migration. As such it

is similar to several project villages chosen. Later on in the study it also

provides the basis of comparison to assess the effectiveness of the project

against a background of general changes in the economy such as new markets and

increasing migration.

Altogether 413 households were studied over 12 villages.

In order to obtain a selection of male and female respondents, of women-

headed households, and of households of elderly couples, the enumerators were

asked to follow, in each village, the simple formula of:

(a) up to 5 women-headed households;

(b) up to 5 households headed by elderly parents, or one elderly parent;

(c) at least 30 households constituted with both parents active, and from

which the respondents should be approximately 50% male and 50%

female.

The enumerators were also asked to select from category (c) approximately

14 households with very small holdings or no land at all, 9 with average size

holdings, and approximately 9 with large size holdings. Since average holding

size can vary considerably by area, a common set of size ranges could not be

fixed for all the villages. In the analysis of the findings, farm size was

defined as land owned plus parents' land which was used. The reason for this

was that variables (such as credit, hired labor, and dependency ratios) had to

be studied against land assets under the permanent control of the household or

S of closely-related kin (that is excluding rented land which could vary from

year to year). To some extent this meant that land used under a pooling

arrangement was accredited to one household, but data on resource pooling ar-

rangements showed where this occurred.

The outcome of these guidelines for the village samples is given below.

Village

Don Daeng

Na Khoi

Na Khoi Noi

Lahan (No.2)

Kwang Jone

Sa Wang

Song

Nong Pan

Yang

Kratum

Nong Yod

Or

Number of households

Number of respondents

Using parents'
Total Sampled Women-headed Landless land wholly Male Female

113 40 5 4 6 17 23

124 22 2 2 2 9 13

22 22 2 1 2 9 13

340 41 5 4 6 13 28

146 40 4 3 2 19 21

242 40 5 0 4 16 24

131 40 5 3 5 17 23

45 45 4 1 8 22 23

42 42 2 4 10 16 26

17 17 3 0 3 8 9

23 23 2 0 2 11 12

83 41 5 2 5 20 21

413 44 24 55 177 236

Each respondent was interviewed twice with the second interview including

more open-ended questions of a qualitative nature than the first. The ques-

tions asked are discussed in the Analytical Framework. Ten women students

from Khon Kaen University were used for the enumeration, and sent in pairs to

reside in a village for one month (with Na Khoi and Na Khoi Noi together, and

Kratum and Nong Yod together, taken as only two villages respectively) before

moving on to another village for the second month of the field investigation.

This method of intensive investigation was designed to enable them to learn

about general problems of the village, to take any opportunity to talk infor-

mally with villagers, and to obtain information about village activities and

organizations.

The field investigation took place between mid-April and mid-June 1982.

This period covered the end of the dry season and the start of land prepara-

tion for the rice crop.

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33

PART II

THE FINDINGS

HOUSEHOLD FORMATION AND INTER-HOUSEHOLD COOPERATION

Summary
The presence of grown children in households was less in villages experi-
encing greater land shortage, but grown daughters tended to migrate less where
vegetables were intensively grown in the dry season, than elsewhere. There is
some evidence that small farm size leads to nuclearization of the households.
Pooling of farm resources between related households is more common in poorer
villages, and women-headed households are more involved than men-headed house-
holds in pooling arrangements. Within villages there is no discernible influ-
ence of farm size on either the pooling of farm resources or the sharing of
granaries.

Household Composition

The composition of a household provides data on its labor force, its

dependency ratio, and the tendency of older children to migrate or set up

separate households.

The respondents comprised 236 women and 177 men. All the men were mar-

nuclear households pooling resources and supplementing income with wages in

Nong Yod).

LABOR DEPLOYMENT: DEMANDS AND CONSTRAINTS

Summary
Although men are more involved than women in land preparation and spray-
ing, the variation between villages in the sexual division of labor suggests
that there are no strong cultural barriers to substitution between male and
female farm labor. A notable feature is the very small amount of child labor
used in agriculture. Exchange labor and hired labor is extensively used, more
so in some villages than others. Harvesting and planting of rice are the two
peak labor periods. Migration of grown children intensifies the use of men's
labor more than women's. The ratio of seasonal to casual wage employment is
higher in poorer villages where water resources permit little or no dry season
agriculture. In nearly all the villages studied home industry is predominant-
ly directed to own-use.
The great majority of both male and female respondents claimed that
migration of children and greater secondary crop cultivation had led to
greater additional work for men than for women in recent years. Nearly all
respondents rejected the hypothesis that families with young children were
more concerned with self-provisioning rice production than other families, on
the grounds that women with young children could cope least well with rice
labor demands.

This section looks at the way households deploy their labor in all on-

farm and off-farm activities because of locality differences in agricultural

labor demands and the need for wage income to finance farm inputs.

Seasonal variation in agricultural work and the division of labor "

Where land is of poor quality and water resources for agriculture in the

dry season are meager, farm size tends to be above the regional average and

great effort is put into the single rice crop. But the tasks of weeding and

spraying are pursued less vigorously. The peaks of farming activity are

therefore sharp for land preparation, planting, and harvesting; and the

periods of lack of farming work are more extended. The smaller farms in the

more fertile and better-watered areas require a more even spread of labor in-

put in rice and, in addition, usually have smaller plots on which cash crops

are intensively cultivated in the dry season.

To gauge the intensity of work on rice and cash crops respondents were
Asked, for each cultivation task, whether household members worked both

mornings and afternoons. They were not asked how many members did this. It

was believed that a separation of mornings and afternoons would give a rough

indication of pressure of work, because the afternoons are hotter and there-

fore more unpleasant to work in, and women (at least) have domestic tasks.

Working members were separated into men, women, male children under 15 years,

and female children under 15 years.

The data on the use of household labor on rice growing is shown in Table

6. Children's labor was excluded because its low use did not justify adding

it to the table.

Labor None of the rice cultivation tasks is exclusive to one sex. Men mostly

or Rice dominate land preparation. However, in Kratum and Nong Yod women work both

S mornings and afternoons in land preparation in many households. This is prob-

ably due to the fewer resident male children of at least 18 years in these

villages. Householders here also reported that land preparation and planting

had to be hurried in order to get ahead of the rains. Slightly more women

than men do transplanting, and both sexes are called upon to perform this

labor-intensive work both mornings and afternoons. The intensity of planting

work is comparable with that of the harvesting period.

Very little weeding is done and women are only slightly more involved in

it than men. The greater weeding in Sri Sa Ket is due to the heavier doses of

fertilizers applied, and in Kratum, a very fertile soil.

Harvesting requires all available hands and in most villages mornings and

afternoons are worked with equal intensity by both sexes. There is no sign in

any of the villages that because men work a full day women are able to work

half days. This indicates the intensity of work at this time of year. Post-

harvest activities include a series of staggered tasks. The harvested crop is

tied in bundles and carried, first to a platform inside the field where it

might be threshed, and later to the granary. Mornings might be spent in tying

the whole sample of 413 stated 'more'. When framing the question it was

thought some might reply that bigger yields were not possible, and that they

had learned this from past experience. But the flat reason for their answer

was that people did not like leaving their villages and homes to find work.

Respondents were finally asked whether, if the extra work necessitated by

a new cropping method required someone in the household to give up wage

employment, they would accept it. Eighty-three percent of the whole sample

were still ready to accept it without further consideration. Women showed

some greater hesitation than men in Lahan, Song, and Or. When respondents

were invited to state in order of importance their considerations in making a

decision to adopt a new crop method, prices were most important, followed by

access to markets. Labor was the least important. Thus, in spite of acknow-

ledging that they work harder now than before, these farming households are

prepared to work harder to make their faris viable and to remain in the vil-

lages.

CREDIT SOURCES AND COSTS

Summary
There were great differences between villages in the use of institutional
credit. No strong inverse relation was observed between use of BAAC and
Cooperative credit. The greater the use of (the cheaper) institutional credit
in a village, the lower the interest rates of friends, relatives, and money-
lenders tended to be. There was no observable difference between men- and
women-headed households' sources of credit.

A first perusal of the data on credit shows enormous differences in

sources by village and by farm size. The role of the formal institutions of

several kinds of cooperatives and farmers' groups, the Bank for Agriculture

and Agricultural Cooperation (BAAC), and an assortment of other banks was

strong in some villages, in others a rare phenomenon.

There were many problems in assessing interest rates. The principal one

was that credit was offered from all sources (both institutional and private)

in terms of the amount of money to be returned, while duration of the loan was

variable. Ostensibly institutional credit should be repaid at the end of the

seasons, but results were different. Enumerators did their best by asking how

long the loan was for and calculating interest on an annual basis. Another

problem was that credit might be raised for any combination of production,

house-building, land buying, education, or general expenses. A third problem

was that many farmers obtained fertilizer on credit from the Cooperative which

carried no direct interest, but the slightly higher price than that in towns

could be interpreted as a 4% interest rate. Finally, there was a great deal

of confusion amongst farmers as to what interest rates they were paying, even

to the banks.

S Institutional credit

Some comment needs to be made on the profusion of means of access to

institutional credit. The BAAC offers both money and credit fertilizer. A

borrower has to be a member of a BAAC Group. Collateral is either land (in

the case of individual applicants) or the co-signatures of other members of

from all institutional sources, while farmers in Or resorted heavily to money-

lenders and merchants. Within a village the interplay of political forces,

stemming from social prominence and holding size, affect the actual interest

rates paid by individual households. There is clearly a need for both target-

ting improved credit sources on some villages and devising means to democra-

tise the Farmers' Group.

Non-institutional credit

Private moneylenders and traders charged much higher interest rates than

the Cooperatives and the BAAC. In most instances interest rates were 40% and

higher in 1981 and 1982. Interest demanded by friends and relatives covered a

very wide range.

Table 12 gives figures for the number of households obtaining credit from

relatives, friends, and moneylenders/traders, by interest rate, and by use

made in agriculture, as far as was ascertainable.

Very few households in the Nakhorn Phanom villages used this credit. In

Lahan and Kwang Jone, in Chaiyaphum, credit from relatives and friends, when

it was obtained, was expensive, and could be as costly as credit from lenders

and traders. In Lahan many households used expensive market credit on cash

crops (cassava and kenaf) for hired labor, and for 80% of respondent house-

holds on tractor services. In Na Wang, which was noted by the enumerators as

a village enjoying a great deal of cooperation between villagers, relatives

and friends appear to lend on generous terms, and hardly any resort was made

to lenders and traders. But it should be noted that a large number of Na Wang

farmers also obtained fertilizer on credit from Cooperatives. The almost

total absence of credit from any non-institutional source in Nong Pan is due

to very heavy use of formal institutional credit. A comparison of the data in

Influence

of Insti-

tutional

Credit on

Other

Interest

Rates

S Tables 11 and 12 reveals that there is some relation, by village, between

extent of use of institutional credit and interest rates charged by non-insti-

tutional credit sources. The more institutional credit the lower the interest

rates from other sources. The villages of Lahan, Yang, Kratum, Nong Yod, and

Or, are cases in point. Farmers in Or were totally dependent on very expen-

sive lenders and traders. Since the time when the leader of the Farmers'

Group failed to pass farmers' repayments to the Cooperative, the Cooperative

has refused to supply fertilizer on credit.

The hypothesis posed in the Analytical Framework states that where non-

institutional credit from relatives and friends is plentiful, interest rates

are lower. This has to be rejected. In fact, the presence of cheap institu-

tional credit acted as "price leader" in the credit market.

When there is no interest demanded it is judicious to ponder whether

. there is some other quid pro quo, such as an indefinite return of 'exchange

labor' or some gift of rice. But older, non-residential parents are likely to

be amongst the zero-interest creditors. All cases of creditor-friends were

operating at over 20% interest, but the majority at less than 40%. Money-

lenders and traders were more explicitly in the free market. A minority were

charging less than 50%, and most between 50% and 75%; but in Or some were

charging between 100% and 150%. In nearly all cases moneylenders and traders

did not ask for collateral.

Selling It can be concluded that the hypothesis that interest rates are lower

Crops when collateral is requested was proved in general. Another means of raising

"Green" credit, though for immediate cash needs rather than for purchasing inputs, is

selling crops green. In this study when respondents were asked 'Do you sell

any crop when it is still standing in the field?', they were quick to ask

whether this meant when the crop was very young and truly green or when it was

mature. Because the study was seeking to find out about the intensity of

credit needs the case of truly green crops was stipulated. Only in Nong Pan

were there any instances; and only three.

Many respondents mentioned many cases of selling the crop just before

harvest. These involved cash crops, notably the perishable watermelon and

vegetables, and pre-harvest selling was associated with the practice of the

trader organizing and paying for the harvesting.

Women-headed households

There was no observable difference between men-and women-headed house-

holds' sources of credit. In most cases of the latter the women heads were

widows well over the average age of respondents and with grown children to

arrange credit. Since most of the young widows were sharing farm resources

with other households their credit problems would be shared with those house-

holds.

*

attendance

At Demon-

;trations

EXTENSION SERVICES AND MEMBERSHIP OF ORGANIZATIONS

Summary
Farmers' experience of extension services was unsatisfactory in most vil-
lages, and in some very poor indeed. The presence of a resident extension
officer in one village meant that visits to farmers included a general discus-
sion of farming issues instead on dissemination of advice on a particular
crop, and no discrimination in extension service delivery against women. In
general, visits by extension officers to farmers tended to be determined by
above average farm size and by some householder's membership of the Village
Committee. Both male and female respondents were overwhelmingly in favor of
having women agricultural extension officers. Far fewer women than men were
members of Farmers' Groups, and of these women there was a strong tendency for
them to have very large farms.

Existing Extension Services

Farmers' experience of extension services is unsatisfactory to say the

least, and in Lahan, Kratum, and Or very poor indeed. Table 13 gives replies

to the questions 'If an agricultural demonstration has been held in your vil-

lage, did you attend it?' and 'Has an agricultural extension officer ever

visited your house?'. The replies to the first question also revealed that
some were not aware that such a demonstration had been held.

Men's attendance at demonstrations appears comparatively good in the

Nakhorn Phanom villages and in Nong Pan and Yang. But elsewhere few men seem

to have witnessed an agricultural demonstration. The picture is far worse for

women, except in Na Wang (where a higher proportion of women than men attended

one), in Nong Pan (where half the women claimed to have attended one), and in

Song (where equal proportions of men and women respondents have seen a demon-

stration).

Amongst reasons given for not attending, the most common, especially for

women, was lack of time. 'Not interested' or 'relied on someone else to go'

came next, with men and women proportionately about equal on both reasons.

When respondents who had attended demonstrations were asked whether they

had influenced their cropping methods, the positive responses came mostly from

the Roi Et villages.

It is noticeable that in the Chaiyaphum and Sri Sa Ket villages extension
services are very poor. In one village farmers reported that the tambon

extension officer visits the village once every two months. More often they

see him pass on his motorcycle on his way to the more 'accelerated' villages.

When he does stop his meetings are for 'leading farmers' (larger-scale farmers

and members of Village Committees see later) of which about 10 participate.
Home Visits Interestingly, in Nong Pan, Yang, and Na Wang (where extension activity

of Exten- has generally been greatest) visits by extension officers to individual houses

sion were even more frequent than farmers' attendance at demonstrations. Nong Pan

Officers farmers report that the extension officer visits the village twice a month,

S while Na Wang farmers are privileged to have a resident extension officer.

Taking the 12 villages as a whole, home visits by extension officers were dis-

proportionately to households with large farm sizes. For instance, in Don
Farm Size Daeng, two of the four visited had above (village) average farm size, in Na
Influence Khoi all of the four, in Na Khoi Noi three of the six, and in Song one was of

average size and the rest very much larger. In Yang eleven of the seventeen

were above average farm size, in Kratum three of the four. But in Nong Pan

only seven of the twenty-four had above average farm size.

But more significant than the relation between home visits by extension
officers and farm size was that between home visits and Village Committee

members. Although households with above (village) average farm size are dis-

proportionately represented in Farmers' Groups, especially in the villages of

Sri Sa Ket, a significant minority had farms below the average size. The five

women members in Sri Sa Ket all had farms of size well above the average for

their villages. Only one woman respondent was found to be a member of a

Village Committee in Na Khoi and she had a farm of 200 rai. There was a

great deal of overlapping membership of Farmers' Groups and Village Commit-

tees, but even more overlapping between respondents who had been visited by

extension officers in their homes and who were members of Farmers' Groups.

HOUSEHOLD FINANCIAL MANAGEMENT

Summary
Although more men than women were involved in negotiating credit and
selling rice, the weakness of this kind of information for determining persons
responsible for household financial management was made plain when it was
shown that it is women who mainly control income. Many respondents stated
that they took decisions jointly and controlled income jointly. But in the
village which produced a large surplus of rice, men appeared to be emerging as
controllers of all sources of income. In contrast where secondary cash cropp-
ing is significant, and earmarking of income for particular purposes most
prominent, women were seen to be most confirmed as the custodians of in-
come.

This section describes decision-making within the household, who controls

cash income (and not merely the consumption budget), whether cash income is

earmarked for specific purposes, and any signs of cash flow management.

Negotiation of credit

In all but two villages men are far more important than women in negoti-

ating credit at its source. The BAAC sometimes requires land collateral, and

land (at the present time) is predominantly owned by women. There were many

reports, in detailed answers, of 'both men and women' having to present them-

selves to obtain BAAC credit, but there were also cases of men and women going

alone to negotiate this credit. The fact that the holder of the farm land

ought to be present means that in theory at least women have a veto on this

source of credit. Fertilizer on credit from Cooperatives, via the Farmers'

Groups was, in nearly all cases, negotiated by men.

Only in Na Wang, Song, and the Sri Sa Ket villages did women share in

negotiating credit from relatives. This could be because men are away on

seasonal wage employment at the time this credit is needed. Yet it is more

likely that these relatives are the wife's kin, who will in any case be aware

of her views. What was unexpected was the relatively greater involvement of

women than men in negotiating credit from moneylenders and traders than from

relatives and friends. Apart from Farmers' Group credit and credit from rela-

tives, a picture emerges of men negotiating credit in the town (which involves

a journey) and of women negotiating credit in the villages.

However, the weakness of the question 'Who negotiates credit?' as an in-

dicator of financial authority in the household was revealed later by answers

to 'Who controls cash income?'

Selling of crops

Specialization of selling particular crops, by sex of seller, is not ap-

parent from the data in Table 17, although men do most of the selling. But

women are relatively more involved in selling cash crops than rice, especially

in Na Wang and the Sri Sa Ket villages. When cash crops are dry season crops

the absence of men might partly explain this. But the main reason is the

selling of watermelons and vegetables to traders who visit each farm and the

province of women in the cultivation of these foods. The sale of livestock by

men and women depends very much on the village. A significant number of

respondents claimed that they sold crops jointly with their spouses.

Control over income

What is far more important for economic standing in the household is who

controls income and therefore, presumably, expenditure. The question was

asked 'Does the cash income remain under the control of the person who sells

the product?' It had to be assumed that if there were leakages before passing

income to another member they were negligible, since it was impossible to ob-

tain data on this. To find out which sex controls income it was necessary to

S compare the data on 'Who sells?' and 'Whether this person retains the cash in-
come'. (See Table 18). Since it has been widely assumed by writers on the

Northeast that women control household income, it was taken for granted that

when a woman sells the product she retains the income, but that whenever a

seller surrenders the income, the seller is a man. Answers to the second

question in Table 18, 'If the seller does not retain the cash income, who

keeps it?' confirms that this is widely true.

From the data it is clear that in Don Daeng men hand over income from

sales to women in all cases except for some cash crops. In Lahan, men some-

times retain income from cash crops. In Kwang Jone a minority of men who sell

rice and cash crops retain the income. In Song, Kratum, and Nong Yod, a

minority of men sell rice and retain the income. Data for Or indicate that

all cash income from men's sales of non-glutinous rice and livestock are

S passed to women.

Nong Pan looks like an unusual village in that husbands are emerging as

the household controllers. This village has some very large farms and their

agricultural surpluses are, comparatively, very large.

Control In those villages where many households report wage employment, wages are

Over very largely placed at the disposal of women. But in Nong Pan more households

Wages reported men controlling wages than women, and in Na Khoi and Na Khoi Noi, a

large minority of men are controlling wages. There is significant "joint con-

trol" (a term offered by respondents to mean there is no separate control) of

wages in Yang and these are disproportionately found amongst households with

large holdings. In Lahan, Kwang Jone, Na Wang, and Nong Pan, there is some

evidence of the same things occurring. It suggests that where farm size is

large enough to produce a financial surplus from agriculture and if men show a

greater tendency to control this cash income than on smaller farms, this prac-

tice extends to wage income as well.

A serious weakness of these data is that they do not reveal informal

means of joint control. It cannot be assumed that the woman (or man) who

holds money has exclusive control. Nevertheless, what is at stake in making

this general inquiry is whether a woman has a command over the household's

cash income which is commensurate with her responsibilities for delivering

basic needs of maintenance to her family and her other roles and responsibili-

ties. In the Northeast there is some evidence that women's control of cash

earnings is moderating on large holdings when a surplus is more likely, such

that men are emerging as household comptrollers.

Earmarking of income

The replies to the question 'Do you put aside part or all of income from

different crops for specific purposes?' were interesting. In the more self-

provisioning villages of Nakhorn Phanom there was less earmarking of farm in-

come. In Song where only 15% of households did any earmarking the explanation

may lie in the fact that the credit for tobacco growing is offered by Adams

Company, and the cost of the credit is later recuperated in the price the com-

pany pays for the crop. In Or the large wages component and very high inter-

est rates paid could explain the 54% of households who do some earmarking of

income. In the Sri Sa Ket villages and in Na Wang, where cash cropping is im-

portant, very high proportions of households earmark cash income.

The more intensive farming villages, then, do much more earmarking of in-

come. The reason of credit repayment is prominent, but this is accompanied by

almost as frequent setting aside of cash income for food. To a much lesser

extent education receives an allocation. What is of further interest is that

where there is an emphasis on allocating cash income, women are more strongly

confirmed as the custodians of income.

WELFARE AND FAMILY PLANNING

Summary
A shortage of rice was felt most just before the harvest, and other items
in the diet showed variation by location according to available sylvan produce
and proximity to food markets. Women (and children) are the main water col-
lectors, and this becomes very arduous towards the end of the dry season.
Frequency of cooking and breastfeeding were affected by women's rice planting
and harvesting, and a close covariation with miscarriages was observed at
these times. Most respondents wanted child care facilities, but only at
certain times of the year. Birth control is widely accepted and the pill is
the most common means. Women stated that improvements in birth control ser-
vices should include elimination of side effects and a more friendly and
respectful medical service. There was a clear association between small ideal
family size and (village average) small farm size.

In this section the satisfaction of basic needs (food, water and fuel),

as well as the roles of different household members in that satisfaction, are

discussed. Then issues of women's and children's health, and family planning,

are dealt with.

Nutrition

Sales of rice and purchases of paddy and rice can be made for reasons of

the face. The unpopularity of the IUD is no surprise and matches experience

in most other countries.

What is remarkable is how many people (both men and women) were able to

give full answers to the question on preferences. There can be few poor rural

areas in the world where such a complete response could be given.

Table 23 shows that only in Na Khoi Noi (a village in which the enumera-
tors observed a sense of isolation) ias the radio an important source of first

information on birth control. In two other villages it was approximately as

important as relatives and friends combined. Medical stations were, overall,

the most significant first source of information, especially where medical

extension officers were most active as in Nong Pan and Na Wang. There is some

evidence of a movement to progressive expertise: from friends and relatives to

the medical stations; or, starting with the medical station, to the medical

extension officer. There can be no doubt that the villagers themselves are

aware of the importance of a medical station. Replies to the question 'How

would you like to see birth control services improved?' were focused most fre-

quently on the theme of the inconvenience of travel, and that health officers

should visit villages more often. A few hopefully suggested a constant supply

of free pills. But however enthusiastically women in the Northeast have

accepted birth control, they want it delivered on what the women called

"friendly and respectful" terms. The second most common suggestion for

improvement was that health officers should be more friendly, have a better

relationship with people, and give more information on methods. Indeed, the

widespread personal unpopularity of medical officers of all kinds caused the

student enumerators to be taken aback.

Table 24 gives people's ideas on the suitable number of children and on

the possible effect of migration of youth on family size. Moving across the

table, from Don Daeng to Song, the modal suitable number of children was 4

(except in Na Wang where there appears to be some uncertainty), but with a

sharp falling off of frequencies after 4 children, the mean is much closer to

3 1/2. There is a clear association with farm size and with the lack of

Source of

Informa-

tion and

Birth

Control

Igeve-

ments

Desired

Ideal

Family

Size and

Influence

0

oMt gra-

tlW

further land available for any cultivation. Only in Nong Pan and Na Wang did

the majority of respondents reply in the negative to the question, 'Do you

think that migration of youth effects ideas on small or large family size?'

But detailed answers to the question showed that it was understood in two

ways: the effect on rural family size and on the people who had migrated to

the cities. The most frequent answer was that it leads to smaller (farm)

family size because it has made people aware that they cannot give land to all

their children (or all daughters). But for those who thought of the effect on

the migrant's family size there was a clear recognition that there was nobody

at home to look after the children when both parents had to earn money: the

conflict between urban employment and child care led to small family size.

MIGRATION AND INHERITANCE
Summary
The majority of children who remit money have no say in how the money is
spent. This was most pronounced in villages where earmarking of all income is
greatest. Parents expressed a preference for migrant daughters rather than
sons to return to farm the land, but there was some evidence that female
descent of land is no longer strongly favored in all villages.

Migration of children to towns and cities has three effects: it reduces

(and can almost stop) the subdivision of farms1, it leads to remittances to

parents which supports the viability of the farm, and it reduces the adult

labor force on the farm. A growing proportion are young women who would